Baby bubbles, yogatime, and brightening old ladies’ days

Posted on January 16, 2009

This week has been a fun one for Lyra and me. On Wednesday we went to our first Baby Bubbles swimming class. Lyra loved the water, and it was a lot of fun playing in a pool with her. I would definitely recommend trying it to anyone with a baby. They apparently teach submersion, but we haven’t done that yet obviously. I’m hoping to get someone to go with me so they can take some pictures of her in the pool for me.

Later that day, when Adam got home from work, we did some yoga together. I modified the poses to include Lyra to some extent (I got a mommy & baby yoga book!), while Adam did the usual routine (we have an Eoin Finn dvd.) She giggled and squealed for a lot of the practice, which made it fun, and also made the whole routine a lot more challenging for me than usual. To be fair, it is pretty challenging all on its own right now, since I’ve only done yoga once or twice in the past year. Yoga did not agree with my pregnant self, and the C-section recovery did not allow for much yoga. My belly has only now started to feel normal instead of feeling weird and achy or numb all the time. The numbness was particularly annoying – the entire area of my scar just felt like it was vaguely burning for months on end. The burning is gone now. I am pleased.

But back to the yoga with Lyra. She giggled and squealed, like I mentioned, and when we got to the seated poses part of the routine she decided it was time to nurse. The last poses of the routine involved me sitting on my yoga mat, breathing and nursing her until she fell asleep. The whole experience amused me.

I was extra stiff the next day, but not in a bad way. I hope to keep doing modified yoga with Adam & Lyra – it’s very good for my flexibility and strength.

My upper body strength has increased a huge amount since I had Lyra. It only makes sense, since I’m carrying her around all the time, and she just keeps getting heavier. I can feel my strength, if that makes sense. It’s weird.

Yesterday we kept fairly quiet. I went out to run some errands, and met up with Adam after he was done work. In the evening, Adam started an online course he’s taking for work, so it was mostly just Lyra & I hanging out in the living room while he worked on the computer. Today was much the same, except I spent a lot of the day with Battlestar Galactica episodes going in the background. They were showing the first half of the 4th season on Space in anticipation of the new episode that was on tonight. Lyra and I did go out for a walk today to run some errands. In a five block span we were approached and/or cut off by at least five little old ladies (some pushing walkers from the far side of the sidewalk just to cut us off and talk to Lyra.) This happens regularly to us, especially now that Lyra faces outwards in the wrap, and is basically a little head sticking out of my coat. I have to get a picture of the setup, it’s incredibly cute, and somehow makes us very approachable it seems. Anyhow, approximately one little old lady per block stopped to talk to Lyra on the street, and in every store I went into either the staff or customers (often also little old ladies) talked to her. She was a happy kid today, and spent a lot of time smiling at these strangers, fortunately.

One other thing she’s picked up is nonstop squealing and growling while we’re walking. At first it was just the growling, and since I couldn’t see her face in the front of the sling, I couldn’t tell if she was making a happy or annoyed sound. She basically growled nonstop for our walk on Wednesday – a good 20 minutes straight of her going “rrrrRRRrrRRRrrrrrrrRRRRR” in the sling while I walked along. Today she added squealing to the conversation, so it turned into something like “rrrrrrrrrRRRRRRrrrrrRRRrrrr YEARRGHLS rrrrrrrrRRRR myeaaaaaaaah” at the top of her lungs. I couldn’t help but laugh. And when she starting inserting her epic collection of fart noises into it (Thhbbbbbt!) I nearly lost it. She’s very fun to take for walks these days.

I think I need to write something about the sling. It’s honestly the best purchase we made for the baby. I know a lot of babies out there don’t like them very much, but it’s been a perfect tool for us, and nothing makes Lyra happier than being at our level. She fusses and complains so much in the stroller that half the time when we use it we end up carrying her and pushing an empty stroller. The thing is huge and awkward and unmanageable and completely inflexible anyway. Great for shopping for cat food & litter with, but not good for our regular outings. Who can blame her for wanting to be with us, though, really? She’s a little social butterfly already, and I think she’s learning a lot by seeing things from our perspective, and having so much interaction with the world. Plus, it’s extra cute for the little old ladies to enjoy.